POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



429 



cast of countenance. He pointed out that 

 the purity of the race depended on the 

 number of proselytes made by the Jews in 

 ancient and mediaeval times. The earlier 

 proselytes, before the foundation of Chris- 

 tianity, were mostly fellow - Semites, and 

 would not affect the type, while the num- 

 bers made afterward were too small to 

 modify the race. A considerable number 

 of Jews, the Cohens, were not allowed to 

 marry proselytes, and must consequently 

 be tolerably pure. Mr. Jacobs's general 

 conclusion was therefore in favor of the 

 purity of the Jewish race. 



The Elm-Leaf Beetle— The entomologi- 

 cal division of the Department of Agricult- 

 ure has published an account, prepared by 

 Dr. Riley, of the elm-leaf beetle {Galeruca 

 xanihomelceria), which has committed serious 

 damage upon the elms in many States dur- 

 ing the past few years. It is an importation 

 from abroad, and fortunately gives its at- 

 tention mostly to foreign species of elm, the 

 common native species, Ulmus Americana^ 

 being generally exempt from its ravages. 

 The injuries it commits are severe about 

 one year in three, while they are relatively 

 light in the intervening years. It works its 

 destruction from May to August, and pre- 

 fers the warm side of the tree. The most 

 effective remedies against it are the ordinary 

 arsenic washes and powders, and these ap- 

 pear to injure the tree as well as kill the in- 

 sect. Their effect is also worst on those 

 species and varieties which suffer most from 

 the ravages of the beetle. In administer- 

 ing the poison, it is well to anticipate the 

 appearance of the insect, so as to prevent its 

 getting a start. 



Conditions of Snccess In Life. — The 



physiological conditions of success in life, 

 according to Dr. James T. Searcy, of Tus- 

 caloosa, Alabama, m his address before the 

 State Medical Association, consist chiefly 

 in the vigorous and healthy action of the 

 brain and nervous system. Therefore the 

 structural integrity ancj functional capaci- 

 ty of the brain are most important mat- 

 ters, and how to preserve and improve them 

 are vital questions. Hence the author be- 

 lieves, " if wc can discover the ways in 

 which brain capacity is improved, we will 



have done a great deal, and, if we can 

 state the ways in which it is lowered, wc 

 will have done a great deal." The excel- 

 lent man will not only show his ability to 

 take in, to understand, but he will also show 

 it in knowing what to take in, in his ability to 

 select for a purpose. " The successful man 

 possesses ability not only to learn, but to 

 verify his learning and to deduce his conclu- 

 sions correctly, and execute them tenacious- 

 ly. The simply erudite man is not the suc- 

 cessful one. He must be capable not only 

 in his receptive ability, but also in his ad- 

 justing and emissive abilities. This often 

 puts the man who is simply the scholar at 

 such disadvantage in the presence even of 

 the unlettered man of 'common sense.' ' Com- 

 mon sense' may be defined to be the in- 

 herent excellence of capacity in all three of 

 the departments of brain-action. He need 

 not be an ' educated ' man to show this trait, 

 but if he is educated his inherent ' common 

 sense ' tells all the better. He learns well 

 and properly, he reasons well and properly, 

 and he executes well and properly." 



now Woods preserve Moisture. — M. 



Woeikoff, an eminent Russian observer, as- 

 serts, in a recent article in Petermann's 

 " Mitthcilungen," that the ofBce of forests 

 in diminishing evaporation can not be ex- 

 plained by the lower temperature or the 

 greater humidity which are known to exist 

 under their shadow. The most important 

 factor contributing to the result is the re- 

 sistance opposed by woods to the winds, the 

 force of which being greatly reduced under 

 the trees, the air is changed more slowly, 

 and consequently the moisture is less readily 

 carried away. Documents which have been 

 collected at Nancy, in France, show that the 

 vicinity of a forest increases the quantity 

 of rain. It would seem that in Central Eu- 

 rope, where the difference between the tem- 

 perature of the ground and air within the 

 forest and that of the open is but little in 

 the winter, the forests would have slight 

 influence on precipitation at that season. 

 Nevertheless, the forests receive more water 

 than the open spaces in winter, because of 

 the lowness of the clouds combined with the 

 resistance that the woods offer to the moist 

 west winds. Rain-water is stored in the 

 moss and herbage of the woods, to te con- 



